Rescue workers at the scene of an overturned Greyhound bus near Manchester,
Tenn. (Chad Baker/AP Photo)

Bus Horror

Greyhound Suspends Service After Fatal Crash

N A S H V I L L E, Oct. 3, 2001  A deadly bus crash in Tennessee in
which the the driver was reportedly attacked by a passenger has prompted
Greyhound to suspend all bus service in the United States.

As a precaution we are halting service in the U.S.," Greyhound spokeswoman
Lynn Brown said. The company has 2,300 buses nationwide.

The attack did not appear to be terrorist-related, U.S. Department of Justice
officials said.

The incident occurred around 4 a.m. on an Atlanta-bound Greyhound bus near
Manchester, Tenn., about 65 miles outside of Nashville.

"The bus driver was assaulted and [it] resulted in an accident," said Manchester
Police spokesman Steve Deford.

The bus, No. 1115, swerved at least four times and crossed the highway median
before turning over.

Drivers Throat Reportedly Slit

Passenger Carly Rinearson told local television station WTVF that a man aboard
the bus had slit the driver's throat, sending it veering out of control.
Local officials, however, declined to comment on the exact nature of the
assault on the driver.

U.S. Department of Justice spokeswoman Susan Dryden said the alleged assailant
had a Croatian passport. He apparently was killed in incident.

Greyhound bus No. 1115 crashed in Manchester, Tenn.

There were conflicting reports on the number of deaths.

"We have six people who were dead at the scene," Tennessee Department of
Public Safety spokeswoman Dana Keeton said this morning.

Earlier police reports put the number of fatalities at seven, and officials
at nearby Vanderbilt Hospital said 10 people died at the scene.

Keeton said 32 people were injured, including the driver, who was airlifted
to a local hospital. Initial reports said the bus had 38 people aboard.

The FBI arrived at the scene and was assisting in the investigation.

Greyhound has established a hotline for relatives seeking information about
passengers aboard the bus: (800) 884-2744.

ABCNEWS affiliate WKRN in Nashville contributed to this report.

Driver describes attacker in Greyhound bus crash

October 3, 2001 Posted: 12:03 PM EDT (1603 GMT)

A sign posted Wednesday at Boston's South Station bus depot announces the
suspension of Greyhound services, which were to resume at 1 p.m. EDT.

MANCHESTER, Tennessee (CNN) -- Greyhound Lines suspended service for several
hours Wednesday after one of its buses crashed in Tennessee when an attacker
slit the driver's throat. Ten died in the ensuing crash, authorities said.

The driver, who survived the attack, told doctors that a man cut his throat
with "a razor or box cutter," then grabbed the steering wheel, sending the
bus careering off an interstate highway.

Greyhound said service was to resume Wednesday at noon CDT (1 p.m. EDT) after
the FBI told the company it was safe to continue.

Ten people were killed in the crash in Manchester, said Dana Keeton, a
spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Safety. The man who attacked
the bus driver was among the dead, said Steve Deford, the Coffee County 911
director.

Dr. Ralph Bard, a surgeon at the Medical Center of Manchester who treated
the bus driver, quoted the driver as saying his attacker had asked several
times about the route of the bus.

"The man came up this last time and cut his throat with what he described
as either a razor or a box cutter and then he actually grabbed the wheel
and forced the bus across the median to the oncoming traffic," Bard quoted
the driver as saying.

The driver told Bard that the man was "5-foot-10 or 5-foot-11 and 150 to
160 pounds." Bard said the driver told him the man was "foreign" and spoke
with an accent.

Bard said the driver never lost consciousness. He said the driver was able
to climb out of the wrecked bus and go for help. Bard said the driver, a
Greyhound veteran from Marietta, Georgia, is in good condition after surgery
to treat the laceration on his neck.

A government official said the man was carrying Croatian identification.

Carly Rinearson, a passenger on the bus, said in a phone call to CNN affiliate
WTVF that a man kept asking if he could have her seat near the front of the
bus. She said he appeared agitated and kept asking what time it was.

Rinearson said when she refused to give up her seat, "He just went up to
the bus driver and ... slit his throat. And the bus driver turned the wheel
and the bus tipped over."

She did not describe the man further or say what kind of weapon he had.

Rescue workers and police are shown at the scene of an overturned Greyhound
bus near Manchester, Tennessee, early Wednesday.

The Knoxville, Tennessee, field office of the FBI sent agents to the scene.
They said if there was no apparent violation of federal law, the investigation
would be turned back over to state and local authorities.

In Washington, federal officials told CNN they believe the crash to be an
isolated incident and not terrorism.

Authorities said the incident occurred at 4:13 a.m. CDT. The bus, running
on schedule No. 1115, had been carrying 36 passengers and had originated
in Chicago, Illinois, on a trip to Orlando, Florida. The crash occurred on
the trip's leg from Louisville, Kentucky, to Atlanta, Georgia, Greyhound
said. It had departed Louisville at 1:15 a.m. CDT and was due to arrive in
Atlanta at 8 a.m. EDT.

When police arrived, the bus was lying on its side by Interstate 24 after
running across the median and then the oncoming lanes. No other vehicles
were involved. The accident occurred near the intersection of I-24 and state
Highway 41 near mile marker 105, police said.

At the scene said that there were skid marks where the bus veered across
the median, ran off the road and turned over.

Victims were taken to local hospitals with some airlifted to hospitals in
Nashville to the north and Chattanooga to the south by helicopter. Deford
said 32 people had been taken to hospitals.

Kristin Parlsey, the Greyhound representative, said Greyhound had set up
a number for families to call -- 800-884-2744.

Wednesday October 03 05:39 PM EDT

Bus Passengers Stranded In Cleveland Moving Again

Wednesday's assault on a Greyhound bus driver in central Tennessee appears
to be an isolated event -- not an act of terrorism -- according to the Justice
Department .

But NewsChannel5's Tracy Carloss reports that the bus company didn't take
any chances with passenger safety. It suspended service, even if only
temporarily.

Two women were supposed to be in Buffalo, N.Y., by Wednesday afternoon, but
they waited for several hours to board the eastbound Greyhound bus.

Like hundreds of other passengers, they spent some unexpected time in Cleveland.

"(We) sat on the floor and tried to call friends and tell them we (were)
OK," traveler Louise Jensen said.

Shortly after the , Greyhound bus service across the country was halted,
including service in Cleveland. The shutdowns stranded many passengers.

The company said that, as a precaution, it pulled nearly 2,000 buses off
the nation's highways.

Some stranded travelers in Cleveland hailed cabs in the meantime, while others
kept one other company.

Wheels were again in motion at about 1 p.m., under the watchful eye of even
more beefed-up security.

Passengers in several cities will now be checked with a wand to detect metal
devices, and luggage is being hand-searched.

But again, the Justice Department said that it doesn't think that Wednesday's
fatal bus crash was terrorist-related.

Wednesday October 3, 4:55 pm Eastern Time

Greyhound looks for ways to better protect drivers

WASHINGTON, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Greyhound Lines President Craig Lentzsch said
all options for protecting bus drivers were now under consideration as part
of an expedited security review prompted by Wednesday's deadly crash in
Tennessee.

Lentzsch and law enforcement officials said the crash, which killed six and
was caused by a man who attacked the driver, appeared to be an isolated incident
and not related to the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

The driver, who was not identified, was hurt. He told doctors who treated
him that the suspect, who was among those killed, attacked him with a box
cutter or a razor.

Lentzsch said the company received no indication from the FBI or any other
law enforcement that Greyhound was a likely target of any attack, underscoring
the belief that the incident was solely the work of what Lentzsch called
a ``deranged individual.''

Nevertheless, the incident, which resulted in the first-ever nationwide stoppage
of Greyhound service, prompted questions about long-haul bus security, especially
the vulnerability of drivers.

``Our drivers are basically alone with passengers for a long period of time,''
Lentzsch said. ``Their exposure is lengthy and lonely and that does put them
at greater risk.''

Asked if securing the driver's area with a compartment accessible through
a door like airline cockpits, Lentszch said that would be difficult but not
out of the question.

``We're looking at all options and not rejecting any at this time,'' Lentzsch
said. ``We are expediting our review.''

Lentzsch met with Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and other officials
in Washington to discuss safety steps.

He said since Sept. 11, Greyhound has stepped up security, like adding more
guards and cameras in terminals and recording the names of passengers on
its non-commuter services.

The executive also said that a few of its stations had begun testing electronic
searches and hand searches of luggage.

``We operate the safest mode of transportation in the United States and we
are going to make it safer,'' Lentzsch said. ``We are going to implement
both visible and an invisible improvements to our safety and security program.''

Greyhound is a unit of financially troubled Laidlaw Inc. (Toronto:LDM.TO
- news), a transportation company that has been in bankruptcy proceedings.

Lentzsch said Greyhound had enough liquidity to ride out the impact of
Wednesday's shutdown. Nationwide service resumed after several hours.

Wednesday October 03 04:39 PM EDT

Passengers Stranded At Sacramento Station

Greyhound bus service has been stopped across the nation, stranding hundreds
of passengers in downtown Sacramento, following a crash in Tennessee that
killed several people.

Early witness reports indicate that a passenger on that bus slit the driver's
throat, causing the crash. At least six people are confirmed dead.

Greyhound officials said the service stoppage was only a precaution. Service
resumed in Sacramento at about 10 a.m.

About 200 passengers were stranded Wednesday morning at the Greyhound station
in downtown Sacramento, where four buses were scheduled to depart, officials
said.

"I think Greyhound is overreacting," Bill Smith said. "I think it was just
a simple case of an out-of-control passenger. They have instances like this.
You've got all kinds of crazy people riding buses these days."

The station was so crowded that passengers without active tickets were asked
to leave.

Wednesday October 3, 3:41 pm Eastern Time

Bus deaths after attack cause jitters in US

(UPDATE: Lowers death toll to six from 10)

MANCHESTER, Tenn., Oct 3 (Reuters) - Six passengers were killed in a Greyhound
bus crash on Wednesday after a man slit the driver's throat and sent the
vehicle careening off a Tennessee highway, witnesses said.

The incident, just three weeks after the attacks on New York and Washington,
triggered the suspension for several hours of Greyhound's services across
a still jittery United States.

Greyhound Lines, which lowered the death toll from the predawn crash to six
from the 10 it reported earlier, suspended service as a precaution, then
announced the system was safe and that it had resumed operations. Greyhound
carries about 25 million passengers a year as the last remaining nationwide
bus service.

Both the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Transportation
said initial indications were that the incident was not related to the Sept.
11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Greyhound, the largest provider of intercity bus service in the United States,
suspended travel for one day after those attacks.

A doctor who treated the bus driver for cuts on his neck said the driver
told him the assailant had asked repeated questions about the bus' route
and then suddenly attacked him with either a razor or a box cutter. Box cutters
were believed the weapon of choice used by some of the Sept. 11 hijackers.

The man, who the driver described as speaking English with a foreign accent,
grabbed the steering wheel and sent the bus veering toward oncoming lanes
and it flipped on its side along the highway, Dr. Ralph Bard of Manchester
Hospital said.

The bleeding driver managed to climb out of the overturned bus and was in
good condition. The doctor quoted the driver as saying ``the suspect never
acted threatening until the actual attack,'' after boarding the bus in
Louisville, Kentucky.

A woman passenger riding in the front seat told a local television station
that the man in his early 30s had been acting strangely, repeatedly asking
her what time it was. She said he had asked for her seat but she refused.

The assailant was among the dead, and the local medical examiner said he
was carrying a Croatian passport, the doctor said. A Justice Department official
confirmed the man had a Croatian passport.

RANDOM INCIDENT

The crash appeared to have been ``a random incident not related to the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks,'' said Dave Longo, a spokesperson for the Federal
Motorcarrier Administration, a division of the U.S. Transportation Department.

Justice Department spokeswoman Susan Dryden said ``at this time we don't
believe it was terrorist related,'' but the FBI sent a team to investigate.

Greyhound President Craig Lentzch sought to reassure passengers and said
those traveling on Wednesday could use their tickets on Amtrak passenger
trains where space was available if they wished.

``Our operations are safe and are now up and running,'' Lentzch said. ``(The
crash was) the result of an isolated act by a single, deranged individual,''
according to what he had been told by federal investigators.

Lentzch said a few of its bus stations had begun electronic searches and
hand searches of luggage would be expanded.

The incident occurred on a bus bound for Orlando, Florida, from Chicago along
Interstate highway 24 about 60 miles (100 km) southeast of Nashville. There
were 38 passengers on board and the injured were taken to local hospitals.

The service suspension stranded passengers from coast to coast at a time
when the suicide airline hijackings had driven many passenger to alternative
means of transportation, such as the bus and train.

``I'm scared and worried because I'm now trying to figure out again which
way is the best to travel. I took the bus because I didn't want to fly after
what happened,'' said George Garecht, a 30-year-old from Chicago stuck in
Atlanta's bus terminal.

But Masa Yoshima, of Osaka, Japan, who has been touring the United States
on Greyhound buses for two weeks, said being stuck in Miami would not deter
him.

``I will have to take out my city map and see some more sites in Miami,''
said Yoshima, vowing to continue his bus tour of America.

Greyhound Lines is a subsidiary of Laidlaw Inc. (Toronto:LDM.TO - news),
a company which has been in bankruptcy proceedings.

Wednesday October 03 04:05 PM EDT

Local Passengers Temporarily Stranded

Local Greyhound bus passengers were confused and temporarily stranded Wednesday
after a bus crashed in Tennessee, halting service nationwide.

The buses at Union Passenger Station on Loyola Avenue were parked behind
locked gates and access inside the terminal was restricted, after reports
surfaced that the Tennessee driver's throat had been slashed by a passenger.

As word of the crash spread, some passengers were making arrangements to
extend their stay in New Orleans.

"It won't make any difference to me," Greyhound passenger Derek James said.
"I mean, obviously, they've taken pretty Draconian steps following the incident.
If they'd ignored it, I'd be a bit worried."

MANCHESTER, Tenn. -- Calling it "very suspicious," Rep. Bob Clement, D-Tenn.,
suggested the hijacking and crash of a Greyhound bus in southern middle Tennessee
would require more investigation before any connection to the Sept. 11 Islamic
terrorist attacks could be ruled out.

The incident, which occurred on Interstate 24 near Manchester, Tennessee,
took the lives of at least six passengers, but that number has fluctuated
throughout the day from as few as four to as many as 10, and conflicting
statements have snowballed across the state as the day has progressed.

According to passenger Carly Rinearson, speaking to Nashville's CBS affiliate
WTVF via her cell phone from the crash site some 30 miles south of Nashville,
a man, apparently in his mid-30s and speaking in a foreign accent, requested
her front row seat several times as the bus made its way towards Atlanta,
Ga. He also requested that several other passengers exchange seats with him,
but they also refused.

The man appeared to frequently check his watch and then, according to Rinearson
and confirmed by Coffee County, Tenn., medical examiner Al Brandon, he approached
the driver, slit his throat and then grabbed the steering wheel, forcing
the bus into the oncoming lanes before tipping over and coming to rest on
an embankment across the interstate. Brandon told authorities that the driver
managed to crawl out a window and flag down traffic for assistance. The attacker
was allegedly thrown through the windshield and died.

Originating in Chicago, the bus made stops in Indianapolis, Ind., Louisville,
Ky., and Nashville, Tenn., according to Kristen Parsley, a spokesperson for
Greyhound. The incident caused Greyhound to shut down its nationwide schedule
of 1900-plus bus routes for several hours on Wednesday, but by 1 p.m. Eastern,
the Greyhound fleet was back in operation.

But as the day passed, questions continue to surface. Still at issue is the
number of fatalities. MSNBC and CNN are reporting six deaths, while the
Vanderbilt Medical Center, one of three facilities treating the majority
of the wounded, announced 10 fatalities. WTVF in Nashville originally accepted
Vanderbilt's count, but has now changed its numbers to "at least six." A
Tennessee Highway Patrol officer told WND, "We basically don't know what's
going on other than what's on the television."

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the FBI were called in to assess
whether the crash may have been terrorist-connected. The Knoxville, Tenn.,
FBI office provided the agents, although the Nashville and Chattanooga field
offices were both closer.

Further complicating the issue for Clement, son of former Tennessee governor
Frank Clement, is the fact that the alleged assailant carried a Croatian
passport. Clement told WTVF that he had spoken to both the TBI and the FBI
and considered the situation "very suspicious," implying statements by Justice
Department officials that the incident was the "result of an isolated act
by a single deranged individual" was something of a rush to judgment.

The identity of the attacker has not been released, merely the fact that
he carried a Croatian passport. The national press, including CNN and MSNBC,
have cast the incident as probably separate from the Sept. 11 terror attacks
against the U.S. However, many Croats are Muslim and Osama bin Laden did
provide both money and manpower for fighting in the region some years ago.

Muddying the water even more is the fact that just Tuesday night, WTVF reported
that the FBI had tracked a bin Laden contact, one Zafer al-Atasi, to Nashville.
"Atasi is a 32-year-old Saudi Arabian national who, until a few short months
ago, lived in Nashville," said Dana Keeton, spokesperson for the Tennessee
Department of Public Safety. NewsChannel 5 reported that Atasi's drivers
license gave his address at the Lexington Apartments on Old Hickory Boulevard
in Bellevue. He had left the apartment, however, and had left no forwarding
address.

"That license was suspended in August of this year for unpaid traffic citations.
The majority of those three or four minor traffic violations occurred in
Davidson County. A couple occurred in Haywood County," concluded Keeton,
in comments to WTVF Tuesday night. According to that same report, Atasi was
in federal custody as of Tuesday night. Although there is no confirmed link
at this time between Islamic terrorists and the Greyhound bus crash, no
possibilities are being discounted either, said a spokesperson for the Tennessee
Department of Public Safety: "At this juncture, nothing can be taken for
granted."

Echoing Clement's hesitation to ascribe this to a single act by a deranged
person was Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director Larry Wallace. In a
press conference earlier today, Wallace told reporters, "This was more than
an accident, but to say it was terrorist-related, I cannot and will not do
that." He wouldn't elaborate on whether the suspect is of Croatian descent,
as was reported by Clement to WTVF earlier. Wallace also noted that the ID
might not be authentic.

At present, both the FBI and TBI are continuing to pursue leads and, according
to TBI sources, are looking for possible connections between the bus hijacker
and Zafer Al-Atasi.